Mothers are still being discriminated against in the US because of the colour of their skin

Low-income black mothers in the USA routinely run the risk of having authorities cast a suspicious eye on them. Here one researcher dissects the dominant negative stereotypes about black women that shape how others in positions of authority view and treat them.

Raising children is hard. Doing so under a veil of suspicion directed at your children and your mothering is incredibly hard. (iStock)

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WARNING: The video below may be upsetting.

Many were horrified by the viral video of New York City police officers ripping Jazmine Headley’s one-year-old from her arms as she cried out, “They’re hurting my son!”

On Dec. 7, 2018, Headley was waiting in a Brooklyn, N.Y., social services office when guards asked her to leave because she was sitting on the floor of the overcrowded office. She refused to leave. She was waiting to speak with someone about assistance for childcare for her son, which had just been revoked. Headley needed the childcare to go to work. When she refused to move, the guards called the police.

Headley says she went into “defence mode” holding onto her son as the police continually tried to wrench him from her arms with apparent disregard for any physical or emotional harm this might cause.

News media labelled the video “appalling” and “disturbing.” Many spoke out about the role of security officers stationed at the benefits office, and the excessive actions of the NYPD.

Most news outlets failed to mention the fact that Headley and her son are black.

Headley’s race is significant because it links the incident to a broader empirical fact: low-income black mothers face harsher treatment in their interactions with social services and other authorities relative to low-income white mothers and, to a lesser extent, Latina mothers.

As a black mom in South Africa, have you ever felt like you weren't being treated in the same way as your non-black peers when interacting with institutions, like schools or governmental services? Share your story with us, and we could publish your letter. Anonymous contributions are welcome.

The criminalization of black mothering

In protecting their children, low-income black mothers like Jazmine Headley risk being viewed as irrationally overprotective and simultaneously neglectful. Headley’s unwillingness to relinquish her son led to the charge of acting in a manner injurious to a child.

And in refusing to unquestioningly comply with police, black women like Headley can be seen as angry and aggressive, and thus as threatening. The angry black woman and the neglectful black mother are two dominant negative stereotypes about black women that shape how others in positions of authority view and treat them.

My recently published paper in the American Sociological Review, co-authored with Megan Reid, shows that the attitudes and practices embedded within these interactions can put mothers at risk of being treated as criminals. In other words, they face the possibility of being criminalized as “bad mothers” and even losing their parenting rights. We led two research projects which involved interviewing low-income black mothers in New York and North Carolina. We learned that what happened to Headley can be seen as commonplace: low-income black mothers routinely ran the risk of having authorities cast a suspicious eye on them, asking: What’s wrong with them? What’s wrong with their mothering?

This was the case for the mothers we spoke to. (We’ve changed their names.)

Law and order policies

Tiffany’s teenage son was caught skipping school by truancy officers. Tiffany worried deeply about the effect her son’s absences and potential school expulsion would have on his future. But rather than work collaboratively with Tiffany to support his attendance, school officials blamed her. The school reported Tiffany to Child Protective Services, and she endured a 30-day investigation. In the meantime, she researched a Job Corp, a federal school and job training program and enrolled her son in it.

At the conclusion of the investigation, Tiffany received a form that basically said she was not found to be doing anything wrong.

“When a black male walk into the room, or walk around somewhere, it’s like an instant fear that, ‘Oh my god, he’s going to do something.’ And it’s like they’re followed around. Just because he’s a black male, you already assume that he’s trouble.”

Black mothers said they must protect their teen children not only from crime and violence but also from being criminalized by police and other authorities. Sonya stressed the serious consequences her teenage daughters could face if they got into a fight with peers:

“Once you do it, it’s over. It really is. You go to jail, you have a record, it’s going to be hard.”

And at the same time that they worried about their children’s criminalization, mothers had to guard against being criminalized themselves.

Raising children is hard. Doing so under a veil of suspicion directed at your children and your mothering is incredibly hard. This is the day-to-day reality facing low-income black mothers. Most don’t get an apology like the one Jazmine Headley received. But they and Headley deserve one - and much more.

Chat back:

As a black mom in South Africa, have you ever felt like you weren't being treated in the same way as your non-black peers when interacting with institutions, like schools or governmental services? Share your story with us, and we could publish your letter. Anonymous contributions are welcome.